Media framing and representation of inter-ethnic relations. A case study on the Babes-Bolyai University debate By Rosu C. Tudor Submitted to Central European University Nationalism Studies Program In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Advisor: Professor Miklos Sukosd Budapest, Hungary CEU eTD Collection 2007 Table of Contents Media framing and representation of inter-ethnic relations. A case study on the Babes-Bolyai University debate....................................................................................................................1 I. Introduction.........................................................................................................................3 II. Theoretical Framework .....................................................................................................5 II.1. The Marketplace of Ideas ............................................................................................5 II.2. The Political Actors’ Control vs. the Commercial Development of Media Enterprises .........................................................................................................................................11 II.3. Media Behavior and Political Consensus ...................................................................17 II.4. Agenda-Setting in Ethnicity-Related Topics..............................................................20 II.5. Media Frames in the Social Definition of Movements and Identities .........................23 II.6. Ethnicity-Related Topics – inside the Newsroom.......................................................27 III. Romanian media development after 1989 .......................................................................31 III.1. The history of the post 1989 Romanian press ...........................................................31 III.2. The Romanian media landscape ...............................................................................32 III.3. Media logic and news production.............................................................................34 IV. Methodology..................................................................................................................37 V. The Case of the Babes-Bolyai University Debate.............................................................40 V.1. The History of the Babes-Bolyai University..............................................................40 V.2. Chronology of Events: October 2005; November-December 2006 ............................43 V.3. Characterization and Profile of Publications..............................................................45 V.4. Content analysis........................................................................................................46 V.4.a.The Display of Collected Data.............................................................................46 V.4.b Interpretation of data collected ............................................................................52 VI. CONCLUSIONS............................................................................................................55 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................58 Appendix 1...........................................................................................................................61 CEU eTD Collection I. Introduction It has been stressed by the studies done on this topic that the media represent a stage on which identities are being negotiated. In the Romanian case, after the system change of 1989, the media were also undergoing a transition period that was supposed to transform the old state controlled channels of mass communication into democratic and independent institutions. At the same time, the Hungarian minority in Romania was going through a process of defining its identity in the new democratic context. After 15 years since the violent system change, most studies describe the media as being free out of the danger of political manipulation and have developed into a hybrid model that still is characterized by average professional standards and commercial imperatives. The paper will be a study about how this model of press deals with the issue of inter-ethnic relations and what are the mechanisms behind the decisions that are being made regarding this topic. The current literature on media in transition societies have either focused more on cases where ethnic conflict have degenerated into violent clashes or studies the functions of the developing media in Eastern Europe in regard to the abstract concept of public interest. In the current paper I will break down this general notion and look on how the tabloidization, developing professional standards and media dynamics influence the representations and framing of the debate around the break-up of the multicultural Babes-Bolyai University. The study will analyze eight daily newspapers, seven from Bucharest and one from Cluj, all in CEU eTD Collection Romanian language. I will look into the issue of how much commercial potential do the topic of the break-up of the Babes-Bolyai University has and what are the frames used to report on these events. The analysis will focus on the representations of the minority group and their demands in this case, the importance that the topic had on the agenda of the eight publications monitored and the mechanisms with which the representations of the two sides were constructed. The first part of the paper debates the issue from a theoretical point of view. Departing from the debate about the potential that nationalistic myths have in transition societies, I will move to the studies on the post 1990 Romanian press and the question of which are the factors that influence media messages. Focusing on Gitlin’s and Mazzoleni’s studies of the media role in the definition of movements and identities, I will look at the media role of preserving the ongoing system. The second part of the theoretical chapter will be focused on debates about the agenda-setting role of the media and how does framing influence the perceptions on social movements. Although not the main focus of the current paper, I will also debate the internal dynamics of newsrooms and how topics of inter-ethnic conflicts are regarded inside the newsrooms. The third chapter will present the current Romanian media landscape and its post 1989 development. The fourth chapter will indicate the variables on which the content analysis of the eight publications will be conducted. The last part of the paper will start with a short history of the Cluj University and continue with the results of the analysis of the articles published on this topic in the two periods of analysis. CEU eTD Collection 4 II. Theoretical Framework II.1. The Marketplace of Ideas Nationalist myths are created in order to emphasize the differences between ethnic groups and, at the same time, to create the means for one group to claim the territory, history and the institutions of the other group(s). This is achieved by exaggerating or inventing the threat that a group perceived as external poses to the nation, downplaying or ignoring the causes that led to the situation and not taking into consideration the costs of pursuing national goals. The nation is pictured as a common heritage that needs protection from the claims of other ethnic groups or individuals that do not share the same ethnicity. Such myths are sold as advertisements for political support and the environment in which these ideas are circulated has a big influence on the way in which they are received and the importance they are attributed. Societies in which the system is changed and new democracies start to evolve are sensible to outbursts of popular nationalism1. According to Snyder’s and Ballentine’s analyses, when the state monopoly of the media starts to break down, elites compete for public support. At this stage, when democratic institutions are not fully functioning, common values are changing. Subsequently, the state and the identities are redefined and nationalistic messages, employed by elites looking to rally mass support, have the potential to be very effective. The causes for this effectiveness derive from the fact that ideas are not debated in an open forum available to the whole public. A well established marketplace of ideas assures that diverse views by different groups CEU eTD Collection are expressed freely but also that all members of society have access to the debates. A segmented marketplace possesses the former characteristic, lacking the latter. Ideas expressed 1 Jack Snyder and Karen Ballentine base their study on the cases of Yugoslavia and Rwanda and conclude that unconditional freedom of speech can cause more problems in the incipient phases of incipient democratization. in one segment fail to reach the rest of the public, or are spread through sources that distort the ideas. Snyder and Ballentine argue that a highly segmented market of ideas creates the context in which nationalistic myths are more likely to appear. However, their analyses only look only at the political elites and their struggle for power, departing from the premise that they are the sole actors accountable for this situation. They mention that the organization of media institutions, the absence of proper media regulation and the weak professional training of the journalists also contribute to this situation, but only inasmuch media and journalists can not resist